Terrorism will not frighten me: Rajapaksa

The Sri Lankan President has said that he will not be cowed down by the terrorist acts of the LTTE.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that he will not be cowed down by the terrorist acts of the LTTE.

In a televised address to the nation after the suicide bomb attack on the Army Commander Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka earlier on Tuesday, Rajapaksa also said that the main aim of the LTTE was to foment Sinhala-Tamil communal clashes.

He appealed to the people not fall into the trap laid by the LTTE.

"Friends, no type of terrorism will frighten me," the President declared.

"I and my government will not be brought to our knees."

"I emphasise and caution that one should avoid mistaking our desire for peace and our responsibility to achieve it as a government, as weakness."

"What the LTTE attempts to achieve by intensifying these attacks, while grossly violating the Ceasefire Agreement they are said to be bound by, is to bring about a clash of a communal nature among the Sinhalese and the Tamil people."

"It is the strategy of the LTTE by this means to change international opinion that is unfavourable to them, to be in their favour."

"Therefore, I make a fervent appeal to all our people not to take the law into their own hands, and in a way give cause for such a communal clash," the President said.